


Your Mother and Mine

by blackcatspinel



Series: I’ll Love Again [3]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Pink Diamond Theory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:40:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24933889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackcatspinel/pseuds/blackcatspinel
Summary: Steven figures out why Pink Diamond abandoned Spinel in the garden.
Relationships: Spinel & Steven Universe, Spinel/Steven Universe
Series: I’ll Love Again [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799029
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28





	Your Mother and Mine

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of my Stevinel fic (currently 40k words) you can find on my page. This is just an excerpt from the story that works well on its own.

“After all, I’m just another one of your... cute accessories. A toy. It’s coded in your gem, after all, to treat others below you like objects...

You’ve really become so much like her now, it’s sad, really,” she says condescendingly. 

Steven stings at the sound of that. He’s having another confrontation with Spinel. 

She starts to get more aggressive. “You thought you got rid me of, huh? W-With the use of your— rejuvinator— presto, chang-o, kablamo! Just like that!”

She takes a deep breath, and her voice suddenly becomes sarcastically sweet, startling Steven.

“Dear, sweet Spinel would become a clean slate, unbeknownst to her that she had been mistreated and betrayed— by someone who now saw her as an inconvenience and an obstacle.”

She returns to her raspy voice.

“I’d be wiped of aaaaall my painful, traumatic memories, and I’d be a problem no more,” she continues. “I know how much my little outburts disturbed you and your little... pets.”

And then her tone of voice shifts to a mocking one.

“Maybe you’re not the kind, patient, an’ compassionate healer you thought you were. Thought you could follow in Rose Quartz’s footsteps? Or should I say— Pink Diamond’s little slippers?” 

Steven starts to clench his fists and press his teeth together. No, no! 

”Despite all these months... I know that you’re still torn between me an’ Connie— you want a better life so bad, don’t cha— you want to become another regular, human boy and forget about your horrible gem heritage.” 

“Sound familiar, _Pink_?” she grins. 

He’s getting red. He fucking hates it when she calls him that. But he can’t help but notice the parallels between him and his mother now.

“Much like her, you were torn between me... and the Earth. Despite livin’ in a luxurious palace, free a responsibility, living carelessly as the gems you ruled over suffered, you still chose to abandon that privileged life and flee to Earth and start anew. How stupid do you have to be, really!” She starts cackling— all traces of Heart’s sweet giggles are gone, and her voice, as well as her laugh, are crude and abrasive now. “Oh, that’s good.” 

“And ya made it worse, really,” she says, unfazed, “Gems would tell me about how the Diamond’s dictatorial rule became _way_ more cutthroat and violent after Pink had died. Homeworld was deprived of resources, and they found themselves in the middle of a horribly taxing and sacrificial war.”

“You know that thousands of gems were shattered, right?” _Huh_? “Not for any particular crimes or wrongdoings— they were shattered because they were taking up resources. A waste of space. They had ta cut corners to fund the war, and that meant the loss of gem life.”

Steven’s heart sinks after hearing that— he almost chokes on air. That _can’t_ be true. Pearl never told him that. He starts hyperventilating, getting nauseous even.

She stays silent for a second and smirks to herself, then looks again at Steven intently.

“...Have you ever seen another Spinel, Steven?” she raises the pitch of her voice in a question. 

Steven takes a deep breath to calm himself down, and starts to actually think about it. Although Steven had visited Homeworld numerous times, he had never actually seen or met another Spinel. He was even mainly in the palace— there were bound to be Spinels there, entertaining and following their superiors. Nevertheless, there were none. He can’t believe he hadn’t realized that.

“No... I. I hadn’t.”

“I mean, what use were Spinels, simple court jesters, party-planners, actors, acrobats, and clowns, to a post-war Homeworld? Gems were famished after your mother’s little game. Homeworld became even more brutal and structured after she left. The planet had been deprived of all fun and entertainment— forcing all gems to live a life of endless slave labor and oppression. And those that were shattered into pieces? Well...

_What do you think they used to make the cluster?_ ”

Steven feels himself getting more nauseous, and he starts to throw up on the side. Spinel looks away. 

Steven wipes his mouth, and stares at the vomit in his hand for a second, and...

It’s pink. 

And covered in glitter.

That’s new.

Spinel smiles as she notices Steven becoming more and more like Her.

Everything she’s saying is true though. Spinel is so different from the other gems, after all— there are servants, builders, warriors, technicians, blacksmiths, terraformers, guards, lawyers— everybody had a part to play in Homeworld’s regime. But she and the other Spinels were an anomaly on that planet. They didn’t even have weapons! They were useless in the eyes of Homeworld, so they were the ones who had to go. 

Steven goes back to her comment about the cluster.

He... can’t believe it. Mom was a fucking murderer. She was at fault for _everything_ that happened to gems after her fake shattering. 

“I returned to Homeworld finally, after six thousand years. I was so alone, and so desperate to see my sisters— the other Spinels again. Only we could understand eachother as we were the ones who witnessed all of the elites plan their invasion of Earth and drive Homeworld to chaos.”

”That’s why I had the rejuvenator. It was my friends— another Spinel’s— Facet-1F2L Cut-2XC. She had stolen it from her superior. She and some other Spinels were interested in joining the rebellion that was forming, after gems spread rumors about the beauty of the Earth. It was their garden of Eden after centuries of servitude. And they were trying to convince me join— b-but I couldn’t abandon Pink Diamond.”

”But they gave it to me anyway. They told me I needed to protect myself for some reason— I th-think they knew they’d get shattered and die trying to get to Earth. I don’t believe they were aware of the weapon’s true function— they probably thought it was a normal blade— after all, we were all shielded from the violence outside of the palace walls until the riots started.”

Holy shit.

For some time, Steven had been doubting Spinel, wondering why she had that horrible weapon that was used to oppress Gems. But she was actually almost on his side the whole time, and some of the other Spinels were helping the Crystal Gems.

”Some a the riots, actually... were about us,” she adds, embarassed. “The Homeworld gems knew about us— the Spinels and all the otha’ weaklins’— how we were just tools fo’ entertainment, takin’ up space, and so they demanded we be shattered or enslaved to save the people.”

Man.

“But when I returned... I couldn’t find any of them. The Diamonds had shattered them all because they saw them as useless and disposable. Spinels weren’t the only ones— there were so many kinds of gems who disappeared during all that time, including Rose Quartzes.” 

“But of course, all but one survived.”

“And so did I,” she concludes.

Steven... just looks at her, seeing her in a different light. She herself had similarities to Pink— Rose— and even Pearl, too... the _sole survivors_ of Pink Diamond’s royal court.

That’s incredible.

Spinel starts to tense up, thinking of those traumatic memories— “I was the last Spinel left! I asked around, looked everywhere— none left! All the other ones were SHATTERED and forgotten, leavin’ me to rot! Some younger gems even asked me what a Spinel was, and had NEVA seen anybody like _ME_ before. THEY WERE ALL DEAD, STEVEN. And that’s WHOSE fault?!

WHOSE FUCKING FAULT,” she screams.

She’s shaking.

“My mother’s,” he responds. He’s afraid to admit it, but he has to take responsibility now. 

“My mother’s, Spinel,” he looks down in complete shame.

He finally understands why she hated his mother so much. She’s not only responsible for abandoning her for centuries, but she’s also the one who caused the war, killing and sacrificing thousands of gems— and weak gems like Spinel had to pay the price.

Steven tries to reach out to her— give her a hug, anything—

“I’m... I’m so sorry, Spinel. I-I had no idea she did that to you. I knew that what you went through was bad enough, with her leaving you in the garden, but—“ 

Wait a second.

_ She left her in the garden.  _

“Spinel...” says Steven, anxiously. His heart is racing, and he starts stammering. “Sp-Sp-Spinel, w-wait—“

“What,” she asks— stern, but slightly confused. “Spit it out, dummy!”

It’s all starting to make sense now. A spark lights up in him. He stands up and grabs her firmly by the shoulders so she can understand him loud and clear.

“Spinel!— don’t you see?! Mom didn’t abandon you because she hated you or wanted you to suffer— this was before she planned to settle in the Earth, right?!”

She’s listening.

”She must had already planned to execute her fake death, and prepared her escape to Earth— she must have known about the shattered Gems! She must have known about the Spinels!”

She must have known about _you_.

Spinels heart drops. She can barely move, as she’s just standing there in a state of shock. Devoid of feeling.

No. 

Fucking. 

Way.

She doesn’t believe it. 

“N-No, no fucking way. There’s no way that’s true—“ she starts panicking. Everything she believed about Pink— suddenly disappearing— no, no!

“Spinel, snap out of it! Pink Diamond knew you were going to get shattered soon, along with the other liabilities, so she led you in the garden and she told you to stand still so you can’t go back to Homeworld!

She _SAVED_ you!” 

“T-That’s not true. That’s not true at all. She left me there for SIX THOUSAND YEARS,” she raises her voice, panicking— “ _SIX THOUSAND YEARS._ ”

“Spinel... I don’t think she ever foresaw any of this happening. She probably thought someone would notice you left, and come looking for you— but they never did. She likely never checked because she thought you were gone, taken to safety to another planet as a refugee.”

“Besides, do you really think she’d come back to anywhere near Homeworld as Rose Quartz?! She had to protect herself and go in hiding to support the Crystal Gems, Spinel! _She was their leader!_ ”

“T-Then why didn’t she take me with h-her ta Earth, huh? Huh, huh, HUH?” her weird Bostonian accent is coming back after she had retired it for a second. 

Oh, she’s cracking.

“Spinel, she was preparing to fight a WAR. She was fighting at all times, for hundreds of years— that was no place for her Spinel! Of course she never brought you, she KNEW it would traumatize you, and she knew you were too weak, and she knew you’d get killed!” 

Spinel drops her knees to the floor, in complete shock.

”So she decided that the best approach was to wait it out until you were rescued.”

She can’t even look up at Steven. She’s just so lost. Everything she had done to him... done for absolutely nothing.

“But... why so long? Why did she command me to s-stay?” she starts tearing up. “S-Six... thousand years.”

“Like you said, Spinel— Homeworld was no place for entertainment and pleasure anymore. Do you really think that any gem in that society would take the time to stroll along a garden and smell the flowers?”

He’s... he’s right. Everything he’s telling her... is right.

Spinel covers her face, sobbing. She’s trembling, and an absolute blubbering mess. So, so different from the person she was just five minutes ago. 

Pink... really was her best friend.

“Pink Diamond saved your life. She protected you, Spinel.

_Just like a mother would._ ”


End file.
